Seth Robson
Naval enthusiasts are tweeting what they believe are U.S. warship positions after commanders ordered the vessels to activate their beacons while in congested waters to avoid collisions.
The order to turn on the Automatic Identification System (AIS) locators, reported by National Public Radio on Sept. 29, follows a series of collisions that have killed 17 sailors in the Pacific in recent months.
However, it appears that the new procedure is also allowing people to track the warships online.
A tweet posted on Sunday that maps the location of a "US GOV VSL" approaching Hong Kong reads: "Reason to believe this is USS Ronald Reagan (CVN 76)."
NPR reported that it still isn't clear whether the USS Fitzgerald was transmitting its AIS at the time of a June collision that killed seven sailors off the coast of Japan; however, it is known that the USS John S. McCain was not when it hit a merchant ship near Singapore two months later, killing 10.
Retired Vice Adm. William Douglas Crowder, a former 7th Fleet commander and a former deputy chief of naval operations, told NPR that Navy ships typically use locators in receive-only mode, which allows them to see other vessels using the system but doesn't let other ships see them.
http://www.military.com/daily-news/2017/10/03/twitter-users-track-navy-ships-using-newly-activated-beacons.html
